An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
Archive for Veterans
So He Can’t Email?
Big flippin’ deal!
Watch this video, then shut up!
H/T: Connie via email.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Why I Am Angry!
In 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Many young men joined the military to help rebuild what had been lost. I think it might have been our innocence lost that day too. Even some older men joined to do their part.
My dad, who was born in 1907, was one of those older types. He had just turned 34. He never got to see action, in any theater of that war. During his training in the Army Air Corp, there was a car accident on the base. No, he wasn’t in the car. Some general’s daughter was. It was a fiery explosion, and my dad, being of the “Greatest Generation”, did what anyone would have done. He saved that young girl’s life. In doing so, he suffered 3rd degree burns over 75% of his body.
They didn’t expect him to live. In 1942, medicine was no where near as advanced as it now. Usually, men like my dad died. God was with him. So was my mom. And a whole team of military medical folks. He spent 18 months in the hospital recuperating. When he was finally released, he wasn’t exactly the same person, physically, or emotionally. Probably not mentally either. But those people at the VA worked with him, and brought him back to almost the man he was before the accident.
He’d never really be the same obviously. Physically, he was still pretty much the same. They grafted skin from other parts of his body onto his face. His pinky’s wouldn’t bend like they should, which was a constant fascination to me as a kid….try as I might, I couldn’t make ‘em go straight!
One other problem that arose. He was no longer able to have children. Oh, my mom would get pregnant, but there was something wrong, and she never could carry to term. They said it was because of the fire. I’m going to believe them. (Obviously, we kids were adopted. Reckon that’s why God kept him on the earth a while longer….to give us a home!)
Now, the reason for me sharing this very personal story? It’s because of this:
Army leaders defend supervision of soldier care unit
Mold infests the barracks that were set up here a year ago for wounded soldiers after poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center triggered a systemwide overhaul, soldiers say.
Twenty soldiers, who spoke to USA TODAY early last week, said their complaints about mold and other problems went unheeded for months. They also said they had been ordered not speak about the conditions at Fort Sill.
And then there’s this:
After problems surfaced last year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the Army established a WTU at each of 35 installations. Soldiers assigned to these units receive specialized care. They are assigned a squad leader, nurse case manager and doctor to care for them, and usher them to return to duty or medical retirement. “Those three people are with this soldier from start to finish … (to ensure) that the soldier can get through the system without having to fight,” Gen. Michael Tucker said in announcing the program last year. “The soldier’s mission is to heal.”
But as the number of soldiers in the program doubled from 6,000 to 12,000 by June, individual care slipped, congressional investigators found. In July, Army leaders told Congress they were struggling to improve the program. “It takes time to kill bureaucracies,” Lt. Gen. Michael Rochelle said.
Bureaucracies? They are concerned about bureaucracies? No. There should be NO level of bureaucracy that would put any of our military personal, who have served their country valiantly, into such conditions! NONE!
If my dad had had the same level of NON-care back in 1942, he would have not lived. I would not be the person I am now for him having been my dad. MY life would have been radically different, as would have been my mom, my two sisters, and my brother. Even my daughter, granddaughters, nieces and nephews.
The care we give our military personal does not just affect their lives! If affects ALL our lives! To quote Texas Fred, “We spend BILLIONS of U.S. taxpayer dollars to finance the Iraqi government in their CIVIL WAR, but we won’t spend the necessary money to properly care for the troops that we send into harms way to carry out the actions and wishes of our President.”
And commenter Basti, “Another shameful page in the history of this nations treatment of its troops and veterans. It goes like this. “They have given their all for us. Now how do we want to treat them? Who cares, let’s just get the next sucker to fill their slot.”
Do I blame Bush? Maybe partially! What I blame more is the lack of consideration coming out of Congress. They claim to care about our troops, but when it comes to funding them, in combat or in the hospitals, they tack on so much crap to the bills that are totally irrelevant. Why not use those extra funds to actually FUND OUR MILITARY? OUR VETERANS? Why must these pissants think the world begins and ends with them? If it wasn’t for people like my dad, his brothers, and every other man who has served this great country so well, those scumballs wouldn’t be in D.C. at all! NONE of them! ZERO!
Now, get off your sorry asses and fix this f*’ing problem!
NOW!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
James Hoyt
James Hoyt, one of four U.S. soldiers who discovered the Buchenwald concentration camp as World War II neared its end, died Monday. He was 83.
Hoyt’s wife, Doris, said he died in his sleep at home in rural Oxford. The cause of death was not immediately determined.
Hoyt served in the Army’s 6th Armored Division during World War II, earning a Bronze Star. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, the bloodiest battle fought by American troops in World War II.
Buchenwald, one of the largest concentration camps established by Nazi Germany, was liberated in April 1945. It is estimated that 56,000 prisoners died at Buchenwald between 1937 and 1945.
“There were thousands of bodies piled high,” Hoyt said in a 2005 interview. “I saw hearts that had been taken from live people in medical experiments. … Seeing these things, it changes you.”
He said he had “horrific dreams” and received therapy at a Veterans Affairs hospital. He was interviewed as part of The Oxford Project, in which citizens of Oxford were photographed and interviewed about their lives.
Hoyt had returned to Oxford after the war and later worked more than 30 years with the U.S. Postal Service there. He retired in 1992.
Your nightmares are over sir. Please, rest in peace.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Today’s Anti-War “Protester”
If you can watch the whole video without feeling the need to reach through your monitor in hopes of ripping the lips off this so called dissent, you are much stronger than I.
Read the post at Wolking’s World.
H/T: The Political Jungle
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
A Total Copy and Paste
This is a “sticky”. It will remain a sticky until it stops being one, or until I don’t want it to be anymore, and figure out how to de-sticky it. 
(yes, I know how….just joshin’ ya) See below for more recent posts.
Walter Reed troops’ Amazon wish list (Bumped and Updated)
From Ace of Spades, we get the Amazon wish list of troops recovering at Walter Reed.
The movies and games are part of a larger effort by CAUSE, a group founded in 2003 by 4 West Point grads who had served together in Vietnam. The idea behind CAUSE is that morale among active and recovering soldiers and Marines can be dramatically improved through R&R activities. At Walter Reed, CAUSE has facilities at the Mologne House, which is an outpatient dormitory for personnel and their families. The CAUSE library carries DVDs, as well as video games and equipment and is open to anyone at Walter Reed, free of charge.
My goal this summer is to try and fulfill the wish list…
And please feel free to pass this link on for others to contribute and for those of you with blogs (you know who you are), please consider publicizing this effort.
It’s cheap and easy so do it.
UPDATE: A commenter at Ace of Spades added the wish list for troops at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston.
I found a couple of things on those lists. Now YOU go and do a little shopping for those who protect you!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Rest in Peace
Medal of Honor winner Lucas dies at 80
Jack Lucas, who at 14 lied his way into military service during World War II and became the youngest Marine to receive the Medal of Honor, died Thursday in a Hattiesburg, Miss., hospital. He was 80.
Now days, 14 years old are lying their way out of some trouble or other.
Jacklyn “Jack” Lucas was just six days past his 17th birthday in February 1945 when his heroism at Iwo Jima earned him the nation’s highest military honor. He used his body to shield three fellow squad members from two grenades, and was nearly killed when one exploded.
I know there are young men and women of honor, but we just don’t hear about them anymore. Instead, our newspapers and tv’s are filled with stories and images of those who wouldn’t walk across the street to spit on a soldier if he/she were on fire. Shameful.
He was left with more than 250 pieces of shrapnel in his body and in every major organ and endured 26 surgeries in the months after Iwo Jima.
He was the youngest serviceman to win the Medal of Honor in any conflict other than the Civil War.
His youth made him a news item. But I have no doubt this man would have done the same thing if he were 10 years older at the time. A true man of honor and courage.
As Texas Fred said: Attention on Deck! A real American Hero has passed from this earth, Heaven has a new Marine protecting the Gates…
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
To All - Past, Present And Future - Thank You
Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women’s groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, “Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping” by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication “To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead” (Source: Duke University’s Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920). While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it’s difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860’s tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.
Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis’ birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.
In 1915, inspired by the poem “In Flanders Fields,” Moina Michael replied with her own poem:
| We cherish too, the Poppy red That grows on fields where valor led, It seems to signal to the skies That blood of heroes never dies. |
She then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need. Later a Madam Guerin from France was visiting the United States and learned of this new custom started by Ms.Michael and when she returned to France, made artificial red poppies to raise money for war orphaned children and widowed women. This tradition spread to other countries. In 1921, the Franco-American Children’s League sold poppies nationally to benefit war orphans of France and Belgium. The League disbanded a year later and Madam Guerin approached the VFW for help. Shortly before Memorial Day in 1922 the VFW became the first veterans’ organization to nationally sell poppies. Two years later their “Buddy” Poppy program was selling artificial poppies made by disabled veterans. In 1948 the US Post Office honored Ms Michael for her role in founding the National Poppy movement by issuing a red 3 cent postage stamp with her likeness on it.
Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.
There are a few notable exceptions. Since the late 50’s on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing. In 1951, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of St. Louis began placing flags on the 150,000 graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as an annual Good Turn, a practice that continues to this day. More recently, beginning in 1998, on the Saturday before the observed day for Memorial Day, the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts place a candle at each of approximately 15,300 grave sites of soldiers buried at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park on Marye’s Heights (the Luminaria Program). And in 2004, Washington D.C. held its first Memorial Day parade in over 60 years.
To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the “National Moment of Remembrance” resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans “To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to ‘Taps.”
More information here.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
“We Need A Victory”
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Vet Sentenced
Now, call me dense, but just why is a Mexican flag flying on a U.S. Campus? If the group stated wanted to honor Mexican independence, I’m sure there were plenty of celebrations going on in Mexico they could have joined.
So, it’s ok for a bunch of sh*t heads to burn the American flag, but it’s not ok for someone who is extremely angry to destroy something that should NOT have been flying over U.S. soil to begin with? Vandalism. Check. Got it.
I’d say the Dean should have been charged as well, can’t think with what right now…give me a few minutes. The man complained to the dean, the dean did…..what? Seems like not a damn thing. Did he forget which country he lives? The dean should have made a simple phone call, and had the flag taken down. Simple.
Now a U.S. vet has a record for getting rid of something that shouldn’t have been there at all!
Wrong. Just flat out wrong!
H/T: Stop the ACLU
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Hollywood Icon Gone
The loons in Hollyweird could have learned a lot from this man. Dignity, grace, humility, just to name a few.
Rest in peace sir, you have surely deserved it!
Charlton Heston Dies at Beverly Hills Home
Charlton Heston, who won the 1959 best actor Oscar as the chariot-racing “Ben-Hur” and portrayed Moses, Michelangelo, El Cid and other heroic figures in movie epics of the ’50s and ’60s, has died. He was 84.
The actor died Saturday night at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said.
Powers declined to comment on the cause of death or provide further details.
“Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life. He was known for his chiseled jaw, broad shoulders and resonating voice, and, of course, for the roles he played,” Heston’s family said in a statement. “No one could ask for a fuller life than his. No man could have given more to his family, to his profession, and to his country.”
Heston revealed in 2002 that he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer’s disease, saying, “I must reconcile courage and surrender in equal measure.”
With his large, muscular build, well-boned face and sonorous voice, Heston proved the ideal star during the period when Hollywood was filling movie screens with panoramas depicting the religious and historical past. “I have a face that belongs in another century,” he often remarked.
The actor assumed the role of leader offscreen as well. He served as president of the Screen Actors Guild and chairman of the American Film Institute and marched in the civil rights movement of the 1950s. With age, he grew more conservative and campaigned for conservative candidates.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
